A request from Louisa: Hi Ben – I am visiting family in Portland Oregon March 24-27 and I was hoping to observe a PLC member if possible. Any ideas? Louisa Walker, PhD

Check for Understanding When Circling Always check students’ eyes for what they are understanding. If your students look as if they do not understand, it is because they do not. Go back to the beginning of the pattern, slow down, circle more deliberately, and stay in touch with what is happening with all of your

Skill #1 – Circling: Students become strongly engaged when you get enough repetitions on the words you are trying to teach them, because they understand. There is a strong link between student engagement and good circling. In the early stages of learning this skill, you will probably refer frequently to your circling poster, which should

This post supports Ben Lev’s Power Point on circling, which he has invited us to modify, change to suit our needs if we present to anyone on circling, and Ben thank you for doing that and for sharing your observations about what all the other presenters there in CA were talking about – speech output

Grant is at Central States today. He picked this up at one of the tables:

Diane’s idea of combining Charlotte’s Zoo Wall with Star of the Week is wonderful and so I moved it from the comments into a post for ease of reference by those who might want to do it next ear. It really could be fun to teach. I thought of these ways to apply the idea:

In 2010 Charlotte Dincher (Germany) invented something for middle and elementary kids and shared it with us here on the blog. It scrolled out but some will remember it. I’m reposting it here. It’s called a Wall Zoo. It is a blue chip idea that can be used in any way we see fit in

in my view the need is to simplify and protect ourselves from too many techniques and strategies. We must learn simple teaching because if what we do is not simple then it cannot be elegant. And all of us want our teaching to be elegant, whether we are aware of it or not. When we

Ben Lev has shared with us a Power Point presentation on circling: Circling Hi Ben, I’m attaching my PPT about circling, maybe other people can modify it and use it for their own presentations. About 20 colleagues attended the in-service at the community college where I teach at night. It was well received, but I

Kerir Colwell shares a few ideas with us and thank you Keri! Hi Ben I have been using two techniques that I wanted to share although I’m sure many members of the PLC already do something similar. They have been working very well for me so I thought I would just mention them. 1. Students

I got an email from a PLC member yesterday, in which she said: …last year, I was heading in the wrong direction (led by a very an overwhelming textbook, Realidades). The previous teacher had great intentions but gave up the overwhelming task of helping the students acquire the language and focused on culture with a

Hi Ben, I thought you and the PLC might be interested in a conversation I had with a student this week. One of my first-year students is a lovely girl with a pleasant personality and outgoing nature. However, she constantly blurts in English, lets her mind wander, and disrupts class. Her current Interpersonal Communication Skills